The Sun Also Bites

A vampire walks into a retirement community. Someone's already dead.

The dead man had a clean bill of health. Three weeks earlier, he'd had a pool bar confrontation in front of the whole community. That was all it took.

Penelope Covens has one rule: never stay long enough to be remembered. Eighty years of packed suitcases, scrubbed apartments, carefully unremarkable cars. The next city was already mapped when Frankie called-family, the way his mother was family-asking her to come to Palm Springs. Now.

By the time Penny arrived at Crimson Canyon Estates, the community had already decided. No police. No charges. Just cancelled card nights and an HOA review with Frankie's name written between every line.

Penny has walked into harder rooms than a Palm Springs retirement community. She's cleared people before, in places where the stakes were measured in wars. But she's never investigated a gated community where every resident is armed with a casserole dish and an opinion.

Can Penny clear her oldest friend before the community turns its quiet, polite attention on her? Or has she finally walked into the one place she can't afford to leave?